PastoralEpistles.com

The ever-helpful Review of Biblical Literature has published Raymond Collins' review of Witherington's book:

Posted by Rick Brannan

The recent IVP Introduction to the Bible is a nicely done book with a great line up of contributors.  The book provides a nice overview of both testaments including intertestamental history.  The chapters take up issues of history, structure, and meaning.  Such a project is always laudable.

However, the section on the Pastorals is disappointing.  The coverage is of course brief in such a volume- about 3 full pages.  In such space it is difficult to do much, but my disappointment has to do with the overall picture given of the letters.  The book states that the PE “generally focus on the personal lives and activity of those leaders [Timothy & Titus] (or ‘pastors’- hence the title ‘pastoral’ letters).”  While this opinion of the letters is commonly repeated it simply does not hold.  Of course the letters are addressed to Timothy and Titus, but they are taken up far more with the behavior of others in the church. The letters address far more the ‘public’ activity of Timothy than their ‘personal’ lives.

Posted by Ray Van Neste

I've blogged a bit (and still have more to blog) about linkages (be they quotes, allusions, or references) between the Pastorals and the Apostolic Fathers.

My purpose is twofold: First, obviously, is to explore areas where potential dependence of the AF on the NT has been posited. But second is to try to understand the criteria by which these dependencies are posited.

One thing you may have noticed (if you've actually read the posts) is that dependence seems posited on the basis of a catchword or two combined with general topical/contextual agreement.

I've recently become interested in locating potential areas of dependence without having to read and comprehensively know both corpora, and I'm not interested in poring over the details of concordances. Running all sorts of searches is also a bit of a downer. So I figured I'd experiment a bit with writing a script or two to do some comparisons en masse.

My initial comparisons have been between the Pastorals and First Clement. This is because I have several data points already for First Clement: The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers; as well as Hagner's work on the Old and New Testament in First Clement; and also Lightfoot's two volumes on First Clement. This means I can at least check what I find against a super-set of data where others have already posited linkages.

The script I wrote is currently fairly simple: find references where both corpora share four-consecutive-word lemma strings, with the lemmas in any order. There are problems with this, but initial results were interesting. They are listed in brief below. I have some other ideas on how to sharpen and expand results; as I experiment I may post more info here.

Cruddy Matches

• 1Ti 2.2 => 1Cl 27.4.
• 1Ti 6.1 => 1Cl 42.2; 56.1. The phrase can be loosely translated "of God and the".
• 1Ti 6.17 => 1Cl 13.1.
• 2Ti 1.3 => 1Cl 50.3. Dueling senses of χαρις; NT "I thank God" vs AF according to "the grace of God they have".
• 2Ti 3.17 => 1Cl 33.5. NT "the man of God" to AF "God [created] man".
• 2Ti 4.18 => 1Cl 17.2. NT "to him be the glory" to AF "at the glory [of God]"
• 2Ti 4.8 => 1Cl 49.6.

Decent Matches

• 1Ti 1.14 => 1Cl 65.2. "the grace of our Lord" as something that is possessed or given.
• 1Ti 1.17; 2Ti 4.18 => 2Cl 20.12; 32.4; 38.4; 43.6; 45.7; 45.8; 50.7; 58.2; 61.3; 64.1; 65.2. This is a general benediction "... forever and ever, amen". Some have the addition, "to him be the glory, forever and ever, amen"; but not all.
• 1Ti 3.13; 2Ti 3.15 => 1Cl 22.1. "faith in Christ"; a unique and perhaps Pauline concept? Maybe not to these points in the Pastorals, but I'd guess it does go back to Paul.
• 1Ti 5.18 => 1Cl 34.6; 35.7. This is a variant of the quotation formula, "For the Scripture says:". Clement quotes OT frequently, so it is not surprising to see this formula appear -- certainly no direct reference to the Pastorals here.
• 1Ti 6.3 => 1Cl 13.1. "words of the/our Lord Jesus". The PE use this as the basis of sound doctrine (does it agree with Jesus? It's sound); Clement urges rememberance of "the words of the Lord Jesus" for similar reasons.
• 2Ti 1.14 => 1Cl 63.2. Prepositional phrase "through the Holy Spirit" matches, but the context is different, and the phrase is generic enough to not need source.
• 2Ti 2.9; Tt 2.5 => 1Cl 42.3. "the word of God" used with similar import.
• 2Ti 4.14 => 1Cl 34.3. The phrase is somewhat stereotypical, "according to his works", but here NT speaks of punishment and AF speaks of reward. Perhaps the better NT reference is Re 22.12.
• Tt 3.6 => 1Cl 50.7; 59.3. "though Jesus Christ" is a generic phrase; so the match is not surprising.
• Tt 2.11 => 1Cl 8.1; 50.3; 55.3. "the grace of God", though the phrase is common and the words occur in differing orders and cases.

Impressive Matches

• 1Ti 2.7 => 1Cl 60.4. Though this could also be somewhat related to Ps 145.18[LXX 144.18]. Holmes notes 1Ti 2.7 as an xref in his edition.
• 2Ti 2.21 => 1Cl 2.7. Though most note the parallel is more likely to Titus 3.1 (both Holmes and Lightfoot note this), which differs in preposition).

Others

There is also a group of parallels sharing words like lord/jesus/christ along with pronouns, articles and prepositions:

• NT: 1Ti 1.1, 2, 12, 14; 5.21; 6.3, 14, 15; 2Ti 1.2, 3; 2.2; 4.1; Tt 1.4; 2.14
• AF: 1Cl 12.5; 16.2; 20.11, 12; 21.6; 24.1; 36.1; 38.1; 42.1; 42.3; 44.1; 46.7; 49.6; 50.7; 58.2; 59.4; 64.1; 65.2;

Posted by Rick Brannan

This is only tangentially related to the Pastorals. Regular readers know I've been digging into linkages between the Apostolic Fathers and the Pastoral Epistles.

Note that James Darlack of the Old in the New blog is digging into linkages between the epistle of James and the Apostolic Fathers.

Posted by Rick Brannan

I blogged about this back in May and fully meant to follow up then, but life as a new father has been busy. Here are some background posts:

• Treu Papyrus 3605 (NT 0259): 1Ti 1.4-5, 6-7
• P. Berlin 13977 (NT 0262): 1Ti 1.15-16

Those posts only have excerpts of the study I did on the variants in those passages and what the parchments might say about them. My fuller notes are in this PDF file: Treu Papyri.pdf (536.29 KB). I should've posted it two months ago, but oh well.

Of course, I'm interested in any feedback anyone might have. Thanks!

Posted by Rick Brannan

This summer I have submitted two chapters (1 Tim/Titus & 2 Tim) to a forthcoming NT Survey textbook (Kregel) which is to be titled, What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About: A Survey of Their Writings.  While there are numerous NT Survey’s on the market this one aims to be brief and particularly targeted at undergraduate students.  Most surveys are written by seminary professors for that level.  This one is written entirely by people teaching undergraduates.  It is also very focused and brief.  The goal is to summarize the chief concerns of each book in a readable format. 

My point here, though, is to submit to readers what I did with the Pastorals.  I was to distill the letters into what I understood to be Paul’s chief concerns in the letters.

For 1 Timothy and Titus I argued that Paul’s chief concern was corporate and personal godliness.  I wrote:

Paul’s central concern both in 1 Timothy and Titus was the godliness of Timothy and Titus as individuals and of the congregations in which they ministered.  The concern for godliness governed everything Paul wrote in these letters.  Paul explicitly stated that his purpose in writing to Timothy was to urge godly behavior among believers.  In 1 Timothy 3:14-15 he stated, “I am writing you these instructions so that … you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household.”

I also listed church health and right teaching as key concerns in these two letters.

Fro 2 Timothy I suggest perseverance is the major burden of the letter with concern for passing on the pure gospel being a key, related issue.

What do you think?

Posted by Ray Van Neste

A few items of note, particularly because they involve some gents who occassionally post at PastoralEpistles.com.

First, Lloyd Pietersen has an article in this week's Expository Times. I don't have access to the journal, so I've not read the article, but since it is on the Pastorals it does bear mentioning here. That is, I'm guessing it is an article and not a book review because of the way the title is listed in the Expository Times table of contents. (Lloyd, if you could provide a little more info that would be great!)

Lloyd K. Pietersen. "Salvation Language in the Pastoral Epistles: George M. Wieland, The Significance of Salvation: A Study of Salvation Language in the Pastoral Epistles (Paternoster Biblical Monographs; Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2006. £24.99. pp. xxii + 344. ISBN 1—84227—257—8)". The Expository Times 2007 118: 487. (PDF, though you need to have SAGE access)

Next, the June 2007 issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society published Ray Van Neste's review of Perry Stepp's Leadership Succession in the World of the Pauline Circle (Amazon.com). If you have the print, the review is on page 405. I don't believe this issue of the journal is online yet, though with the new ETS web site the promise is that issues will be available online, so ... maybe in a few months.

Congrats Lloyd, Ray and Perry!

Posted by Rick Brannan

[This post is part of a series on The Pastoral Epistles in the Apostolic Fathers. RWB]

Ign. Rom 2.2 || 2Ti 4.6

(2) πλέον δέ μοι μὴ παράσχησθε τοῦ σπονδισθῆναι θεῷ, ὡς ἔτι θυσιαστήριον ἕτοιμόν ἐστιν, ἵνα ἐν ἀγάπῃ χορὸς γενόμενοι ᾄσητε τῷ πατρὶ ἐν Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ, ὅτι τὸν ἐπίσκοπον Συρίας κατηξίωσεν ὁ θεὸς εὑρεθῆναι εἰς δύσιν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῆς μεταπεμψάμενος. καλὸν τὸ δῦναι ἀπὸ κόσμου πρὸς θεόν, ἵνα εἰς αὐτὸν ἀνατείλω. (Ign. Rom 2.2)
(2) Grant me nothing more than to be poured out as an offering to God while there is still an altar ready, so that in love you may form a chorus and sing to the Father in Jesus Christ, because God has judged the bishop from Syria worthy to be found in the West, having summoned him from the East. It is good to be setting from the world to God, in order that I may rise to him. (Ign. Rom 2.2)
Holmes, M. W. (1999). The Apostolic Fathers : Greek texts and English translations (Updated ed.) (168, 169). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

6 Ἐγὼ γὰρ ἤδη σπένδομαι, καὶ ὁ καιρὸς τῆς ἀναλύσεώς μου ἐφέστηκεν. (2Ti 4.6, NA27)
6 For I am already poured out as a drink offering, and the season of my departure is imminent. (2Ti 4.6, my own translation)

The concept of "pouring out" (σπονδίζω / σπένδω) is clearly similar, but the same word is not used. BDAG clears this up with its note on the entry for σπονδίζω regarding their relationship, "derivative of σπονδή; =earlier Gk. σπένδω" (BDAG 939).

These instances of "poured out" language, while similar, refer to slightly different things. Ignatius is clearly referring to his impending martyr's death. Paul, still alive, considers himself already poured out. He is at the end of his earthly pilgrimage referring to his ministry.

Perhaps the more clear NT parallel to Ignatius is Php 2.17:

17 Ἀλλὰ εἰ καὶ σπένδομαι ἐπὶ τῇ θυσίᾳ καὶ λειτουργίᾳ τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν, χαίρω καὶ συγχαίρω πᾶσιν ὑμῖν· (Php 2.17, NA27)
17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. (Php 2.17, ESV)

Here Paul is referring to his future death, not to his work as an apostle. It aligns more clearly with the intent of Ignatius' remark and should be considered the more likely NT parallel.

But is this sort of language common? BDAG cites a few other sources that speak of being "poured out like a drink offering". One is in Philo, On Drunkenness, 152, which speaks of the mind being an offering (σπονδὴν) offered and consecrated (σπένδεσθαι) to God:

(152) And from this it results that the mind which is filled with unmixed sobriety is of itself a complete and entire libation, and is offered as such to and consecrated (σπένδεσθαι) to God. For what is the meaning of the expression, “I will pour out my soul before the Lord,” but “I will consecrate it entirely to him?” Having broken all the chains by which it was formerly bound, which all the empty anxieties of mortal life fastened around it, and having led it forth and emancipated it from them, he has stretched, and extended, and diffused it to such a degree that it reaches even the extreme boundaries of the universe, and is borne onwards to the beautiful and glorious sight of the uncreate God.
Philo, o. A., & Yonge, C. D. (1996, c1993). The works of Philo : Complete and unabridged (220). Peabody: Hendrickson.

In Philo, the offering is clearly not one's death but instead one's mental activity. Other instances in other literature (e.g. Josephus, Ant. 6.22) involve the normal use of the word, as making a drink offering. However, the sense of offering up one's life as a sacrifice to one's God is not completely foreign; a 2nd century AD reference is noted in BDAG's entry for σπένδω:

In the Apollonaretal., Berl. Gr. Pap. 11 517 [II a.d.]: Her 55, 1920, 188–95 ln. 26, the putting to death of a prophet of Apollo who was true to his god appears as a σπονδή. (BDAG 937)

If Ignatius gets his equation of death and martyrdom as "being poured out as a drink offering" from anywhere, he likely gets it from Paul. But he likely gets it from Php 2.17 and perhaps some supplemental force from 2Ti 4.6; but he likely did not get it only from influence of 2Ti 4.6.

Next up: Ign. Magn. 8.1 || Titus 1.14, 3.9

Posted by Rick Brannan

[This post is part of a series on The Pastoral Epistles in the Apostolic Fathers. RWB]

Ign. Trall. 7.2 || 2Ti 1.3

(2) ὁ ἐντὸς θυσιαστηρίου ὢν καθαρός ἐστιν, ὁ δὲ ἐκτὸς θυσιαστηρίου ὢν οὐ καθαρός ἐστιν· τοῦτʼ ἔστιν, ὁ χωρὶς ἐπισκόπου καὶ πρεσβυτερίου καὶ διακόνων πράσσων τι, οὗτος οὐ καθαρός ἐστιν τῇ συνειδήσει. (Ign. Trall. 7.2)
(2) The one who is within the sanctuary is clean, but the one who is outside the sanctuary is not clean. That is, whoever does anything without bishop and presbytery and deacons does not have a clean conscience. (Ign. Trall. 7.2)
Holmes, M. W. (1999). The Apostolic Fathers : Greek texts and English translations (Updated ed.) (162, 163). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

3 Χάριν ἔχω τῷ θεῷ, ᾧ λατρεύω ἀπὸ προγόνων ἐν καθαρᾷ συνειδήσει, ὡς ἀδιάλειπτον ἔχω τὴν περὶ σοῦ μνείαν ἐν ταῖς δεήσεσίν μου νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας, (2Ti 1.3, NA27)
3 I thank God, whom I serve (as did my forbears) in pure conscience, as I have unceasingly remembered you in my prayers night and day, (2Ti 1.3, my own translation)

The concept of a "clean" or "pure" conscience is the link between these two passages. This concept is formed by lexical co-occurrence of the words καθαρός (pure, clean) and συνείδησις (conscience). If the simple presence of these two words in relationship with each other is enough to posit a link, then 1Ti 3.9 (speaking of deacons) should be included as well: "holding to the mystery of faith in clear conscience".

But any link between Ign. Trall. 7.2 and 2Ti 1.3 is stretched. Ignatius uses "the bishop and presbytery and deacons" as a check against conscience; if one goes against that triad, then one cannot have a "clean conscience" in what he does. This isn't what 2Ti 1.3 is about. In Second Timothy, the idea is that Paul serves God just like his progenitors (i.e. Jews) did, with a clean or pure conscience. He isn't falling back on them for authority, he is identifying with his ancestors so his comments in verse 5 -- about Timothy's faithful mother and grandmother -- is more effective.

While the line "clear conscience" is definitely used in both Ignatius and 2Ti (and 1Ti, as seen above) there is no reason to think the concept originated with Paul and influenced Ignatius.

Next up: Ign. Rom. 2.2 || 2Ti 4.6

Posted by Rick Brannan

[This post is part of a series on The Pastoral Epistles in the Apostolic Fathers. RWB]

Ign. Eph. 17.1 || 2Ti 3.6

17.1 Διὰ τοῦτο μύρον ἔλαβεν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ ὁ κύριος, ἵνα πνέῃ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἀφθαρσίαν. μὴ ἀλείφεσθε δυσωδίαν τῆς διδασκαλίας τοῦ ἄρχοντος τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, μὴ αἰχμαλωτίσῃ ὑμᾶς ἐκ τοῦ προκειμένου ζῆν. (Ign. Eph. 17.1)
17. The Lord accepted the ointment upon his head for this reason: that he might breathe incorruptibility upon the church. Do not be anointed with the stench of the teaching of the ruler of this age, lest he take you captive and rob you of the life set before you. (Ign. Eph. 17.1)
Holmes, M. W. (1999). The Apostolic Fathers : Greek texts and English translations (Updated ed.) (146, 147). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

6 Ἐκ τούτων γάρ εἰσιν οἱ ἐνδύνοντες εἰς τὰς οἰκίας καὶ αἰχμαλωτίζοντες γυναικάρια σεσωρευμένα ἁμαρτίαις, ἀγόμενα ἐπιθυμίαις ποικίλαις, (2Ti 3.6, NA27)
6 For from these are the ones who sneak into the houses and capture idle women overwhelmed by their sin, led on by various desires, (2Ti 3.7, my own translation)

The similarity here appears to be primarily lexical, and that only based on one word, αἰχμαλωτίζω. The contexts, while similar, are not complete matches. Even BDAG categorizes these instances differently with Ign. Eph. 17.1 as a citation of sense 1b and 2Ti 3.6 as a citation of sense 2 (cf.  BDAG p. 31).

While each instance involves the capturing and destruction of someone, the capturer is different. In Ignatius the capturer is the "ruler of this age" while in 2Ti it is the self-serving non-believers (adequately described in vv. 2-5).

There doesn't seem to be much to recommend this as an Ignatian reminiscing of Second Timothy.

Next up: Ign. Trall. 7.2 || 2Ti 1.3

Posted by Rick Brannan